More Fuel Cell Follies?

Amid the usual wreck-torn Martinsville weekend came a rumor that NASCAR will mandate smaller fuel cells for Charlotte, the road courses, and Atlanta. The idea appears to have sprung from less-than-encouraging tire testing on Charlotte's new surface between slight increases in speed and greater than expected wear. The hope for the two superspeedways is to necessitate fuel stops before tires wear to the point of failure. On the road courses the idea's rationale is harder to discern.

That small fuel cells are still seen as a reasonable rule change is puzzling after we've seen them in action in the last 14 restrictor plate races. Put in place at Talladega in October 2002, the idea of 13-gallon cells was to necessitate more pitstops and thus break up the gigantic battles for the lead characteristic of plate racing. But in that first race, the idea didn't work - the field pitted and shuffled back together each time; only in the final laps when potential race winners such as John Andretti, Bill Elliott, and a host of others had to pit for a final gulp of fuel did the pack thin out. In its next race, the 2003 Daytona 500, crashes kept erupting just before green-flag fuel stops were to occur. Indeed, the most striking aspect of smaller fuel cells is that the number of cautions has skyrocketed, invariably nullifying the need for green-flag stops; one gets the impression that the drivers, seeing they have only about 100 miles at most to run before needing to pit, fight much more savagely to get into the lead and thus be in a good position to pit, which displays the irony involved, in that the smaller fuel cell has done something much needed for racing - made the drivers race harder for the lead.

At places like Charlotte and Atlanta, the need for cautions is even greater, because the field does get spread out and a large number of cars are trapped out of any contention for the win, and the wrecking doesn't go down. It isn't difficult to imagine drivers fighting harder to get into a good position to pit.

If that is what results from use of smaller fuel cells, then it is an idea of definately mixed results but nonetheless with enough going for it to warrant trying. All the same, don't be shocked if the 22 cautions incurred in the 2005 World 600 turn out not to be that much higher than in 2006.


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UPDATE - As Keith Olbermann might put it, it's a final.